“Water carries us.”
Great Lakes Gathering, Garden River, 2016
Credit River, July 2019 (photo by Kristen Bass).
Welcome to WATER ALLIES, a hub for water issues at New College within the University of Toronto. WATER ALLIES brings together University of Toronto scholars researching and teaching about water, and Toronto/ Great Lakes communities active in water issues. WATER ALLIES is inspired by decolonial, feminist and anti-racist approaches in the social sciences and humanities. WATER ALLIES:
- Organizes a cluster of courses from diverse disciplines on water
- Coordinates events aimed at unsettling our relationships to water
- Shares resources for getting involved in initiatives, and
- Coordinates collaborative research projects between and among academics, NGOs, Indigenous Nations, and communities.
We are working together with, and because of, the water. We are building alliances which are sometimes unusual, sometimes unlikely, and sometimes unprecedented, because of the water.
We are guided by the Guswenta (Two Row Wampum) and other covenants of this place. We honour and are inspired by the Dish with One Spoon Treaty. We strive to work in friendship, honouring the principles of community based research (respect, responsibility, reciprocity and relevance). We work towards, and on the basis of, alliance, guided by these principles.
